OPTIONAL HOMEWORK

Ms Elder discovered that there is a Public Art Scavenger Hunt online.
This fits well with our work in class and would be great to try at home.

If you complete it, let her know! :)

This is NOT mandatory! It's just for fun!

What Do You Do With a Chance: Goal Setting

Today, Ms Elder re-read us the book, What Do You Do With a Chance?

This time, we talked about what are "good" risks and "bad" risks like speeding, jumping off a cliff, eating a bottle of hot sauce, or trying on test even if you're not sure, trying something you haven't before in a sport, reading a challenging book, and putting your hand up at school.

We talked about the difference between a dream and a goal. We said that a dream is far-fetched, usually impossible, and is something we think about. A goal is something you work towards and try to achieve. It is possible if you work hard enough.

Ms Elder asked us to do some goal setting for this year. We had to set a goal for school (academic), for athletics (physical), and for friendships (social).

We are supposed to go home tonight and tell our families about our goals for the year!

As you know, we've been learning about Public Art. We found these statistics about Public Art in Calgary. 

81% of Calgarians say that support for Arts is important

89% say they are happy with Calgary's programs for the Arts

83% say we should spend more money on the Arts

Then, we came up with ideas of how to show the younger students in our school these statistics. We're going to put them on our Public Art bulletin board and percentages are tricky to understand so a picture is easier. We focused on this fact:

We brainstormed lots of different ideas as a class like showing base ten blocks, a bar graph, a tally chart, a t-chart, happy faces, etc.  We got to choose a group and make one of these or one of our own. We also made the percentages into fractions so they were easier to understand. We needed to subtract the numerator from the denominator to find the other fraction (the no's). Here are some of the visuals we came up with: 

Then, Ms Elder showed us how to create a pie graph in Excel. This is another way we can show data.

Best Part of Us

Inspired by our Best Part of Me activity, we wrote a Best Part of Us piece. We each had a classmate to watch sneakily for two weeks and notice great things about them. Then, we wrote about them and kept it a surprise. Today, we shared our writing pieces with the class. They made us feel warm and fuzzy!

Just like with the Best Part of Me responses, Grade 4's had to write 5 complete sentences and Grade 5's had to write 7. We brainstormed as a class different sentence starters to make our writing more interesting. We edited our work for capitals and periods, and conferenced with Ms Elder one-on-one to revise our ideas.

On Friday, we brought home both copies to share (the piece that we wrote ourselves and the one about us), along with our self and teacher-assessment. We hope they make you feel warm and fuzzy, too, just like this video: click here to watch the video.

Orange Shirt Day

Monday is Orange Shirt Day. We have been having discussions in class about why we have Orange Shirt Day, who we are honouring, and what reconciliation means. We have read a few stories that are helping us understand residential schools and Indigenous history.

Please remember to wear orange on Monday. If you're in the school, check out our bulletin board outside the Learning Commons.

Here are some of our reflections:

“We celebrate Orange Shirt Day because we’re better together.

We know that it’s better when we’re all different.”

“Children were taken away from their parents and put into residential schools. Sometimes they weren’t even allowed to come back to their parents. Some people died there.” ~ Bianca

 

“Children in residential schools wanted to run away. Some escaped, and got lost or starved trying to find their way home.” ~ Abigail

“Some residential schools had a lot of diseases because they weren’t so sanitary.” ~ Jaxton

 

“My great-uncle, great-aunt, and my grandpa were in a residential school.”

~ Desiree

“On Orange Shirt Day, we honour the people who had to go to residential schools.” ~ Sophia

 

“We honour the families of the children who were taken who would have been sad.” ~ Dhyana

 

“Some of the parents would hide their children or say that they had died so that they wouldn’t have to go.” ~ Abigail

 

“The people who went to residential schools were treated badly.”

~ Desiree

 

“When people went to residential schools, they had to learn English so when the kids went home, they couldn’t understand their parents.” ~ Bianca

 

“They did summer breaks but then kids were hid from going back, so they banned summer breaks.” ~ Jaxton

“They didn’t want the kids to speak their own Indigenous language, they wanted them to speak English. They forced them to speak English at a residential school.” ~ Priya & Ina

What Do You Do With a Chance?

Today we talked about risk-taking.
Risks are important in life because they help us grow.

The students decided that there are risks you should take, and ones you shouldn't. How do you know if it's a risk you should or shouldn't take?

There are physical risks (like jumping off of something high), social risks (like joining a lunch table group where you don't know everyone), and academic risks (like presenting in front of the class). Can you think of more kinds of risks at home together?

After reading the book, What Do You Do With A Chance by Kobi Yamada, students shared times when they had taken personal risks.

“There’s a step in my backyard and it’s really big. My dad always does it on his bike and he makes it look really easy. But when I get to it, it looks really scary and I don’t want to do it. But the second time I tried it and it wasn’t scary anymore.” ~ Priya

“I was at a trampoline park and there’s a rock climbing thing with a foam pit underneath it. The first time I got up there, it was too high so I climbed back down. But the second time I climbed up I jumped and it was really fun so I did it again.” ~ Sophia

“When I went to Southland Leisure Centre with my Mom I went to the deep end without a life jacket and my mom was way in the back. My mom’s boyfriend had me on his back and he dropped me and my mom had to save me. It was scary but I did it again.” ~ Taylor

“Once I was climbing on sides of stuff and I fell backwards on a ledge. It was pretty high up. Then for several weeks I didn’t want to do it until this one time one of my friends did it. I wanted to join him so I ended up doing it.” ~ Jaxton

“When it was my first time I was using a bike, I was using it and I almost crashed but I did it and I know how to use a bike now.” ~ James

“This one time I was at Isla’s birthday and I was going up to this thing where you need to jump off into this inflatable thing and it was a few feet into the air and everyone was doing it but I was really scared but then everyone told me it was fun so I jumped off and landed in the centre and it was really fun and I did it again and again!”  ~ Charlotte

“The first time I ever went swimming, I got so scared even in the shallow end at Inglewood pool. My swimming leader told me to go to the deep end with the life jacket and I thought that was ok but then she said take them off and we’re going to dive in. I got pretty scared. I couldn’t do it for years and then I went to a pool last summer and I dove into a pool and I was a little scared before but then I did it and it was really fun.” ~ Desiree

“When I was doing swimming lessons in the summer and they said to jump in the pool I was scared of putting my face into the water. But a few swimming classes after I tried to do it again and it was fun!” ~ D

We will use this book as a launching point for setting some goals. Stay tuned for more information as our conversation keeps growing.

Best Part of Me

Best Part of Me assessments went home today. Please take a look at them with your child/parent. There is teacher, self, and peer feedback.

When you have a minute, pop on upstairs and check out the published copies on the wall outside our room. :)

Geometry Quiz Details

Here are the details for the Geometry Quiz, which will be on Monday, October 30.
Students are encouraged to complete the assigned activities on Mathletics as a way to practice.

(Students took home their Mathletics log in information today. Please keep this in a safe place at home!)

Grade 4's need to:
- explain the difference between similar and congruent shapes
- identify and draw lines of symmetry in 2D shapes
- create symmetrical 2D shapes (complete a symmetrical 2D shape given half the shape and its line of symmetry)


Grade 5's need to:
- describe the characteristics of 2D shapes and 3D objects (ex: point out parallel/intersecting/perpendicular lines)
- identify and sort quadrilaterals (rectangles/squares/trapezoids/parallelograms/rhombuses)

- perform single transformations (translation/rotation/reflection) of 2D shapes

- explain the difference and give examples of intersecting lines, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines

Here is the link for the video we watched about Transformations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z1aUhGCZs0 Happy singing! :)

ASSIGNMENT: Public Art Piece Presentation

This note went home today about our next Homework Assignment:

Public Art Piece Presentation

Homework due October 15

This month we have been discussing what art is. We have learned the difference between art that is funded publically and privately. We have taken Community Walks to examine different art pieces, what they are made out of, and what they represent.

Now, it’s your turn to choose your own piece of public art to examine. Here are the expectations:

1)    Choose a public art piece that we have not visited as a class. It can be a mural, statue, installation, etc.

2)    Email Ms Elder to see if it is a piece no one else has chosen yet: eeelder@cbe.ab.ca.

3)    Once Ms Elder tells you that you can do that piece, go visit it with a parent or guardian.

4)    Take your time studying it, sketching it, photographing it, and reading any information you can find about it.

5)    Be prepared to stand up in front of the class and:

a.     Show your sketch.

b.     Show a photograph of it (you can bring one in or email one ahead of time to Ms Elder).

c.     Tell the name of the piece.

d.     Tell the artist’s name.

e.     Tell what it’s made out of.

f.      Tell its location.

g.     Explain, to the best of your understanding, what the purpose of this art piece is or what its message is.

h.     Tell whether it was publically or privately funded.

i.      Explain what you like/don’t like about it.

j.      Describe whether you feel it creates a feeling of community or not and explain why you feel that way.

You will be assessed on:

Language Arts (Speaking): whether you can speak loudly and clearly for the class; whether you were prepared for the presentation (you are allowed to use notes).

Art (Analyzes, Evaluates, and Responds Critically to Art): your description of the art’s purpose and how you feel about it; your sketch.

Social Studies (Demonstrates knowledge of citizenship and identity): your description of whether the art pieces (yours and others that your peers present) build or dismantle a sense of community.

                                                                             

If you have any questions about this project, please email Ms Elder.